Apple Announces Management Changes: Scott Forstall and John Browett Out, Ive and Others Add Responsibilities

[olowott]

Wow!!

Hope Maps guides him safely to his house and not a few kilometres off to the left like mine

 

[ubersoldat]

It is assumed that Browett was behind some staff cutbacks at the retail level and an increased focus on profitability at the expense, some say, of Apple's excellent customer service.

some say apple doesn't have a customer service at all.

 

[saud0488]

Ive the head of iOS?

It'll probably remain the same forever then.

 

[smulji]

Wow, and I just made a long post last week about how Scott is behind everything I don't currently like at Apple.

Glad to see Tim is reading my posts and taking my advice!

I'm not so sure about Forstall leaving. He is young and smart. So far the foundation of iOS is pretty solid. Besides, Jonny Ive is excellent at hardware design. What does he know about software UI design?

 

[larrylaffer]

Jony Ive designing the interface of iOS 7? Yes, please.

Brushed metal everywhere.

 

[Cougarcat]

Two possibilities regarding Forstall: 1) he was potentially a threat to Cook, since he was rumored to be a possible successor to Steve Jobs, and might well have been had Jobs lived a few more years. 2) Apple Maps was a big PR disaster, and it wasn't the first under Forstall's watch (Siri).

Or 3) With Steve gone, Forstall lost his major ally regarding Skeuomorphism. Ive and other higher-ups pressured him, but he refused to budge on the issue.

I will look forward to reading "Apple Confidential 3.0" (or a similar book) in 15 years and learn how it all went down.

 

[Patriks7]

Best Apple news in a while! Can't wait to see what Ive can come up with!

Maybe iOS 7 will be the greatest change we have seen so far?

 

[Rudy69]

I'm curious where iOS will head.

A better looking place

 

[saud0488]

This is a huge relief to me.

Were you really stressing about it that much? Was it keeping you up at night?

 

[LagunaSol]

Forstall now, Obama later? It may be a great 2013 after all.

Time to get unstuck from the rut.

 

[bushman4]

John Browett who came from Dixon seemed a strange choice. Apparently he has not lived up to the high profile or has deceided that Apple is not for him.
In any case Retail is important as the customers are Apples most important asset

 

[bbydon]

With this shake up Apple admits that iOS/iDevices fell behind Android both in software and hardware design categories. I am not sure that putting the industrial designer in charge of GUI design is the best way to address this issue though.

I'm not sure how Apple admitted anything other then an Exec is leaving and a reorganization or responsibilities.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

I don't. Apples products have been slipping, and they've lost big leads in design and innovation to Google. Maps and iOS6 were big signs of that, probably catalysing the process.

Bringing online services together is good; Apples backed has been showing strain lately (game centre, Siri). Bringing them together with icloud makes sense.

Browett hasn't got Apple retail. He had to go.

Forstall is the biggest drop; he was widely seen as a long-term successor to Jobs. iOS has been sputtering recently though, and the skeumorphic design hasn't won any fans. He probably had to go for political reasons and for apparently not getting on well with the rest of the executive team. It'll be interesting to see if Federighi can step up to this enormous role, but I bet well be seeing hints of Ive in iOS 7.

Bob Mansfield is back. Best retirement ever.

In all, great shakeup. Hope to see this rejuvenating Apple. They'd gotten a bit old and Microsofty lately. Hope to see them going back to their strengths.

You can blame the relentless pursuit of profit that has led to so many qt issues in the last five years.

 

[GeekLawyer]

LOL. Poor guy just wanted to cut through the constant sales BS and got hung out to dry for it. No one felt like they could get that extreme couponing-style price.

I agree. I appreciate what he's tried to do at JCP. But maybe he's needed back in Cupertino. Browett was a disaster, according to most accounts.

 

[zbarvian]

This is so exciting. I can't wait for new software design, I'm expecting it to be sleek and modern like the hardware. Awesome news.

 

[tctony]

This is pretty shocking. Will be interesting to see the progression of iOS now.

 

[gatearray]

I know everyone will say this, but this really is huge news.

John Browett was just hired as the head of Apple Retail, so to be out so quickly is obviously a sign something was seriously wrong.

Everyone saw the writing on the wall for Forstall. Internally, he is reviled as being far too open about his ambition and taking credit for other people's work. He is the fall guy, for better or worse, when it comes to the limitations and problems with Siri, and of course the Maps debacle.

Agreed, but furthermore, he's ****ed up quite a bit more than those things in iOS, have you tried to use the App Store redesign? It's horrible, and is probably turning off thousands of users a day because it sucks so bad, really sloppy work. That's really the bottom line, Scott's team has been producing sloppy work with no attention to detail.

And Browett? Good riddance. Anyone who couldn't see that this guy was trouble from day one needs to have their eyes checked. A Ron Johnson he is not.

Overall, a beautiful day for Apple!

 

[monaarts]

This is friggen fantastic!!!

Ive will make iOS the best thing we have ever seen!

 

[k995]

Good, certainly for Forstall iOS had a huge head start and at best its at the same level as Android 4.1/WP 7.5 , without anything new next version will depass apple easily .

 

[crawler1975]

Wow

WOW... looks like heads rolled at Apple. and Jonathan Ive is now in charge of Human Interface and Hardware - way to go! ... I wonder what kind of magic will Sir Jonathan will do with the IOS UI...

 

[dermeister]

I wanted the Johnny Ive side to win against the Jobs/Forstall side on the software that has stitches/leather/pages debate...

But I never wanted Forstall out. Falling on the sword for maps and siri is ridiculous.

Both of these things needed to get out in the open to improve. Comparing them to Google maps is ridiculous, and Google had years to correct and improve.

The only way forward for Siri and Maps was trial by fire.

Hopefully the future isn't Apple at $7/share, followed by a Forstall comeback as iCEO.

 

[AppleInMyBlood]

Forstall out? Wow now I'm worried.....

I wouldn't be.

 

[Michael Anthony]

Best news to come out of Apple since Jobs coming back in the 90's.

 

[slimbek]

I wrote Tim Cook an email a couple of months ago describing how it seemed to me that there were increasing inconsistencies between iOS apps.

You are all welcome.

I imagine this was the culprit behind Forstalls removal...

 

[LagunaSol]

Besides, Jonny Ive is excellent at hardware design. What does he know about software UI design?

Good design is good design, whether it's a building, a computer, or an icon on a screen.